Dock Street and Nepperhan Street between Warburton Avenue and Buena Vista Avenue, Yonkers On December 6, 2011, over 300 people gathered at Larkin Plaza for a ceremony marking the opening of the newly uncovered Saw Mill River. For more than 90 years, the City of Yonkers had covered the river with asphalt. The “daylighting” of… Continue reading Larkin Plaza
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Warburton Building and Yonkers City Music Hall
45 Warburton Avenue, Yonkers Opened on April 14, 1884, what was officially known as the Yonkers City Music Hall was “a first-class concert hall,” in the words of one writer of the time. The venue was lavishly decorated, with a parquet floor, a balcony, and open boxes; it hosted Vaudeville shows, concerts, and community events.… Continue reading Warburton Building and Yonkers City Music Hall
Joseph F. Loehr Court
10 Western Avenue, Yonkers When Hurricane Ida struck in early September 2021, it dumped around 8 inches of rain on Yonkers in a 24-hour period. Among the hardest-hit areas of the city was Loehr Court, a public housing complex. Water unleashed by the climate-change-fueled storm flooded Loehr Courts’ basements, causing $2 million dollars’ worth of… Continue reading Joseph F. Loehr Court
Alexander Smith & Sons Carpet Company
Nepperhan Avenue, between Axminster Street & Lake Avenue, Yonkers In June 1954, the Alexander Smith and Sons Carpet Company, once Yonkers’ largest employer, announced it was ending operations in the city and moving to Greenville, Mississippi. At its peak just after World War II, the company operated on over 56 acres of floor space across… Continue reading Alexander Smith & Sons Carpet Company
Waverly Street Armory
92 Waverly Street, Yonkers Constructed in 1886, the Waverly Street Armory was the first armory in Yonkers. With pointed turrets on each corner and iron gates, the massive building is reminiscent of a castle, and appears designed to intimidate. This fortress-like structure housed the Fourth Separate Company, a militia composed of local citizens and led… Continue reading Waverly Street Armory
The Playroom
590 Nepperhan Avenue, Yonkers In the 1970s and early 1980s, the Playroom was Westchester County’s most prominent gay bar. In 1973, Marty Chinitz, a gay man in his early 30s, borrowed money from his mother to open the establishment; at the time, it was the fifth bar in Westchester County to cater towards a mostly… Continue reading The Playroom
Philipse Manor Hall State Historic Site
29 Warburton Avenue, Yonkers Philipse Manor Hall embodies more than 300 years of Hudson Valley history. The site was a place of land dispossession, enslavement, and revolution. It encapsulates the complicated ties and divisions between European gentry, white laborers, Native Americans, and enslaved Africans. The oldest building in a New York urban center, it now… Continue reading Philipse Manor Hall State Historic Site
Greyston Bakery
104 Alexander Street, Yonkers “Bad for the hips, good for the soul” is the usual maxim used to discuss brownies. But Greyston Bakery, a company located on Yonkers’ waterfront, is adding a new one to the mix: “We don’t hire people to bake brownies; we bake brownies to hire people.” This is the guiding principle… Continue reading Greyston Bakery
Hollow Brook Golf Course (Peekskill Riots)
1060 Oregon Road, Cortlandt Manor On September 4, 1949, a concert for the Harlem chapter of the Civil Rights Congress, featuring Paul Robeson and hosted and chaired by author Howard Fast, took place on the grounds of what had been and would later re-emerge as the Hollow Brook Golf Course. The concert began and ended… Continue reading Hollow Brook Golf Course (Peekskill Riots)
Nine Partners Meeting House and Boarding School
Church Street and Route 343, Millbrook The Nine Partners Meeting House was built in 1745. Quakers in the area had been meeting in each others’ homes for some years prior. In 1796, the New York Yearly Meeting, a central organizing body of Quakers in New York State, established a committee to open a boarding and… Continue reading Nine Partners Meeting House and Boarding School
